Naperville police chief announces retirement plans after 22 years of service
Police Chief David E. Dial announced today that he will be retiring on May 18 from the position that he has held for 22 years. During his tenure, he has transformed the department into an organization nationally recognized as a model for community policing and, most recently, intelligence-led policing. Several members of his staff have moved on to become police chiefs in other college, special district, and municipal police agencies, as well as security directors for private corporations.
“Chief Dial currently leads one of the most effective and efficient police agencies in the country,” according to City Manager Doug Krieger. “The police department has played a key role in enhancing our quality of life and making Naperville one of the safest cities in America.”
Dial's career in public safety spans 45 years, beginning in 1967 when he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law Enforcement and Administration from San Jose State. During his senior year at college, he was appointed as a police officer with the Milpitas, California Police Department. After graduating from college, he took a two-year military leave of absence from the police department and served for one year as a military intelligence officer in Vietnam, earning three bronze stars for meritorious service. After his military service in Vietnam, he returned to work in the Milpitas Police Department where he served as a patrol officer and a traffic officer until 1973.
At that time, Dial joined the Lakewood, Colorado Police Department and furthered his formal education, earning a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the University of Colorado. During the next 17 years, he rose through the ranks and served for the last five years as the assistant chief of police.
Dial also attended and graduated from the FBI National Academy and the Police Executive Research Forum's Senior Management Institute for Police.
In 1990, he was appointed as Chief of the Naperville, Illinois Police Department as the result of a national search and test conducted by the International Association of Chiefs' of Police. During his tenure in Naperville, he attended the FBI's Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar and became a charter member of Police Futurists International. He is currently the immediate past president of that organization.
Chief Dial is a former chairman of the DuPage Metropolitan Enforcement Group and a past-president of the DuPage County Chiefs' of Police Association. He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs' of Police Community Policing Committee, a former board member of the Illinois Association of Chiefs' of Police, and the Illinois State Terrorism Task Force. Chief Dial was also chairman of the Homeland Security Committee for the DuPage County Chiefs' of Police Association. In 2006, he earned a second master's degree, a Master of Arts Degree with a major in Homeland Security and Defense, from the United States Naval Postgraduate School.